MattG

Day 2 Morning
Rough night for the youngest, plus still getting my sea legs meant a rough night all around. Our middle child woke up around 5:30am, and the oldest around 5:45am. I got them to play quietly while I took a shower and got dressed, then got them dressed and left at 7:00am to go get a coffee for the Wife. Heading down to the Promenade for Starbucks, and it was EMPTY. I was surprised at how energetic the ship was yesterday, that the Promenade was so dead. No line at Starbucks, so we bring coffee back to the Wife, and then take the girls to the Windjammer.
We got to the Windjammer by 7:15am, and only one half was open. The second side opened by 7:50am, and most of the seating was taken by 8:00am. This Windjammer definitely feels smaller than Anthem - less seating, fewer service stations, and the stations themselves are smaller. I understand the intention of this, but still feels baffling (and glad they did an about-face on Wonder).
We wrapped up breakfast around 8:00am, and headed down to Oasis Dunes to burn off some time until Adventure Ocean. Drop-off at Adventure Ocean was painless for the two oldest, and the youngest took a little bit longer because he’s still a Nursery kid. Once everyone was dropped off, the Wife and I headed up to the fitness center to prep for this week’s reckless abandon with UDP. After the gym, we headed to the hot tub for a bit, then back to the room to shower and change for AO pickup and lunch at Izumi Sushi.
AO Pickup went smooth, and we headed down to Izumi. Table for 9, we shared with the other family in our party. Food was ordered within 10 minutes of arrival, and mains showed up 30 minutes after arrival. Great service, great timing. Kids were coursed with adults, but it wasn’t as noticeable because of the quick service. I got the vegetable fried rice, and the wife got the spicy shrimp spring rolls, enjoyed by all. For the mains, I got the sashimi and the poke bowl, and the wife got the champagne lobster rolll, also enjoyed by everyone.
Okay, everyone who says UDP is a lot of food: they’re not lying. The fried rice is a small bowl, but very filling. Both mains are a hearty size, and combining both is a crazy amount of food. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it all, because I’m not a masochist 😄 We closed with the strawberry mochi, and all the kids loved them. I have some photos on my phone, the wife has the food photos. Those are coming later.
We came back to the room to change to bathing suits and do a little bit of “boat school” to keep the kids sharp. The wife headed off to the spa/salon to get her hair done (formal night tonight), and we have 150CP tonight. Talk to you all soon!
Random thoughts:
Definite sound spillover from the pool deck to the CP balcony rooms. Everything here seems about 5% “off” - service isn’t as crisp, soap dispensers are empty, one of the interactive screens outside AO isn’t working. Coming from the impeccability of Anthem, Oasis feels a little more mainstream. The carousel on the Boardwalk remains the favorite of all the kids. Cruise Compasses are still MIA for us. I’ve seen B&W copies at some stands (like Starbucks or behind a bar), and I saw a live copy in the hand of another guest, but every request we make falls on deaf ears. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it feels they’re definitely pushing away from them. This ship is big. Lots of walking everywhere. It’s exhausting 😄  D
 

Day 2 Morning
Rough night for the youngest, plus still getting my sea legs meant a rough night all around. Our middle child woke up around 5:30am, and the oldest around 5:45am. I got them to play quietly while I took a shower and got dressed, then got them dressed and left at 7:00am to go get a coffee for the Wife. Heading down to the Promenade for Starbucks, and it was EMPTY. I was surprised at how energetic the ship was yesterday, that the Promenade was so dead. No line at Starbucks, so we bring coffee back to the Wife, and then take the girls to the Windjammer.
We got to the Windjammer by 7:15am, and only one half was open. The second side opened by 7:50am, and most of the seating was taken by 8:00am. This Windjammer definitely feels smaller than Anthem - less seating, fewer service stations, and the stations themselves are smaller. I understand the intention of this, but still feels baffling (and glad they did an about-face on Wonder).
We wrapped up breakfast around 8:00am, and headed down to Oasis Dunes to burn off some time until Adventure Ocean. Drop-off at Adventure Ocean was painless for the two oldest, and the youngest took a little bit longer because he’s still a Nursery kid. Once everyone was dropped off, the Wife and I headed up to the fitness center to prep for this week’s reckless abandon with UDP. After the gym, we headed to the hot tub for a bit, then back to the room to shower and change for AO pickup and lunch at Izumi Sushi.
AO Pickup went smooth, and we headed down to Izumi. Table for 9, we shared with the other family in our party. Food was ordered within 10 minutes of arrival, and mains showed up 30 minutes after arrival. Great service, great timing. Kids were coursed with adults, but it wasn’t as noticeable because of the quick service. I got the vegetable fried rice, and the wife got the spicy shrimp spring rolls, enjoyed by all. For the mains, I got the sashimi and the poke bowl, and the wife got the champagne lobster rolll, also enjoyed by everyone.
Okay, everyone who says UDP is a lot of food: they’re not lying. The fried rice is a small bowl, but very filling. Both mains are a hearty size, and combining both is a crazy amount of food. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it all, because I’m not a masochist 😄 We closed with the strawberry mochi, and all the kids loved them. I have some photos on my phone, the wife has the food photos. Those are coming later.
We came back to the room to change to bathing suits and do a little bit of “boat school” to keep the kids sharp. The wife headed off to the spa/salon to get her hair done (formal night tonight), and we have 150CP tonight. Talk to you all soon!
Random thoughts:
Definite sound spillover from the pool deck to the CP balcony rooms. Everything here seems about 5% “off” - service isn’t as crisp, soap dispensers are empty, one of the interactive screens outside AO isn’t working. Coming from the impeccability of Anthem, Oasis feels a little more mainstream. The carousel on the Boardwalk remains the favorite of all the kids. Cruise Compasses are still MIA for us. I’ve seen B&W copies at some stands (like Starbucks or behind a bar), and I saw a live copy in the hand of another guest, but every request we make falls on deaf ears. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it feels they’re definitely pushing away from them. This ship is big. Lots of walking everywhere. It’s exhausting 😄  D
 

Thank you for making the change!
I just tried your click-and-hold-down method and it worked! It wasn't immediately intuitive, I was clicking, but nothing was happening. Once I held, it worked. 

Thanks! We use these:
Neosmuk Magnetic Hooks Heavy Duty,100 lb Strong Magnet with Hook for Fridge, Super Neodymium Extra Strength Industrial Hooks for Hanging, Magnetic Hanger for Toolbox, Cruise, Grill, Coat and Storage https://a.co/d/cCEmMI0
 
We don’t terribly overload it, and you could still drag it down with enough force, but it works well!

Day 2 Morning
Rough night for the youngest, plus still getting my sea legs meant a rough night all around. Our middle child woke up around 5:30am, and the oldest around 5:45am. I got them to play quietly while I took a shower and got dressed, then got them dressed and left at 7:00am to go get a coffee for the Wife. Heading down to the Promenade for Starbucks, and it was EMPTY. I was surprised at how energetic the ship was yesterday, that the Promenade was so dead. No line at Starbucks, so we bring coffee back to the Wife, and then take the girls to the Windjammer.
We got to the Windjammer by 7:15am, and only one half was open. The second side opened by 7:50am, and most of the seating was taken by 8:00am. This Windjammer definitely feels smaller than Anthem - less seating, fewer service stations, and the stations themselves are smaller. I understand the intention of this, but still feels baffling (and glad they did an about-face on Wonder).
We wrapped up breakfast around 8:00am, and headed down to Oasis Dunes to burn off some time until Adventure Ocean. Drop-off at Adventure Ocean was painless for the two oldest, and the youngest took a little bit longer because he’s still a Nursery kid. Once everyone was dropped off, the Wife and I headed up to the fitness center to prep for this week’s reckless abandon with UDP. After the gym, we headed to the hot tub for a bit, then back to the room to shower and change for AO pickup and lunch at Izumi Sushi.
AO Pickup went smooth, and we headed down to Izumi. Table for 9, we shared with the other family in our party. Food was ordered within 10 minutes of arrival, and mains showed up 30 minutes after arrival. Great service, great timing. Kids were coursed with adults, but it wasn’t as noticeable because of the quick service. I got the vegetable fried rice, and the wife got the spicy shrimp spring rolls, enjoyed by all. For the mains, I got the sashimi and the poke bowl, and the wife got the champagne lobster rolll, also enjoyed by everyone.
Okay, everyone who says UDP is a lot of food: they’re not lying. The fried rice is a small bowl, but very filling. Both mains are a hearty size, and combining both is a crazy amount of food. Unfortunately I didn’t finish it all, because I’m not a masochist 😄 We closed with the strawberry mochi, and all the kids loved them. I have some photos on my phone, the wife has the food photos. Those are coming later.
We came back to the room to change to bathing suits and do a little bit of “boat school” to keep the kids sharp. The wife headed off to the spa/salon to get her hair done (formal night tonight), and we have 150CP tonight. Talk to you all soon!
Random thoughts:
Definite sound spillover from the pool deck to the CP balcony rooms. Everything here seems about 5% “off” - service isn’t as crisp, soap dispensers are empty, one of the interactive screens outside AO isn’t working. Coming from the impeccability of Anthem, Oasis feels a little more mainstream. The carousel on the Boardwalk remains the favorite of all the kids. Cruise Compasses are still MIA for us. I’ve seen B&W copies at some stands (like Starbucks or behind a bar), and I saw a live copy in the hand of another guest, but every request we make falls on deaf ears. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it feels they’re definitely pushing away from them. This ship is big. Lots of walking everywhere. It’s exhausting 😄  D
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

Paging @Matt or @Lovetocruise2002 or @SpeedNoodles

Could I please get a topic title update from "Anthem" to "Oasis"?
Thank you!

There’s an app called “MaskerAid” put out by the hosts of one of my podcasts. It uses AI to detect faces and then overlays an emoji. You can change the emoji to any in the standard library, as well as move and rotate:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id1590163828
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

45 DAYS OUT
Didn't sleep great last night, got up early for work, which worked out in our favor because I was able to secure a 10:30am check-in time!

Hi everyone! We're off on another family adventure, this time on Oasis. It's me (mid-30s M), Dear Wife (mid-30s F), and our three kids (6F, 4F, and 2M). This is a sequel to our December 2021 trip on Anthem, and something i've been looking forward to since that trip (being honest - i've been looking forward to this trip before we even embarked on Anthem!)
There are some things that will be the same from that trip:
same family same departure port (Bayonne, NJ) same itinerary (Sea Day, Port Canaveral, Nassau, Coco Cay, 2 Sea Days). But there's a lot more that will be different:
Better wrangle of COVID: COVID was a burden for us last December - getting tests, testing in the terminal, everyone wearing masks, etc. They were all necessary steps, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. However, with vaccines now being available for kids under 5, everyone will be fully vaccinated by the time we cruise. We can't be more excited to have them "in the bubble" with us and be considered part of the fully vaccinated members on the ship. Also, we're definitely taking @Matt's advice and bringing a handful of COVID tests with us!
Oasis-class (from Quantum-class): On Anthem, I felt like we disembarked having done everything we could have done on that ship. COVID knocked out a lot of family activities, which came back throughout this spring based on the Cruise Compasses that have come out from Anthem. Every time I think about kids activies on Oasis, I lose track! I'm really excited for there to always be something to do (Ultimate Abyss, Splashaway Bay, Adventure Ocean, Merry-Go-Round, more pools)
Dining: On Anthem, our goal was to fully embrace the Windjammer and MDR for meals. We also really liked the consistency and structure of both venues when it came to routine with the kids. Our serving staff in MDR on Anthem were, without a doubt, the best part of the entire cruise. As parents, they made our lives as painless as possible. From a food perspective, Windjammer and MDR were good, but not great or mind-blowing. At the time, UDP on Anthem was $220/person, and specialty dining wasn't in the cards. Once we booked Oasis and I got into the Cruise Planner, I saw UDP for $167/day. With 150CP and Chops going for $60+, convincing DW that $24/day for specialty dining was easy, especially with the increased variety on Oasis.
Stateroom: On Anthem, we also had our nanny (20F), so we did two connecting interior staterooms. They were gorgeous and gave us room to spread out. By the time we cruise on Oasis, our nanny will have moved on, so it's just the 5 of us. When I browsed the Oasis deckplans, I saw some 5+ rooms, including Central Park Balcony rooms. It was break-even in cost to switch from 2x interior to 1x CP balcony, so we made the switch. We're very curious to see 1) how the 5 of us cope being in one room, and 2) how the balcony changes the dynamic of the room.
Price: Our price for 2 interior staterooms on Anthem (after taxes, before grats) for 3 adults and 3 kids was $3,228. On Oasis, our 5-person CP Balcony started at $4,471, but with several price drops, promos, and Kids Sail Free, our total on Final Payment Date was $2,332. Unbelievable. Endless thanks and praise to @Sharlaat MEI Travel for making this happen, and for putting up with my incessant requests to re-check pricing 🙂 Thank you, Sharla!
 
Our Goals on Oasis:
Truly embrace specialty dining: having our fill of WJ and MDR, we're going the polar opposite direction and going HAM on specialty dining thanks to UDP. Probably not the smartest idea, but we're doing it for SCIENCE!
Escape room: I'm a huge space nerd, and can't wait to check out the Apollo 18 escape room
Stress less about activities, especially for the kids: on Anthem, I felt like I had to always be planning the "next thing" for the kids. I don't feel I need to do that on Oasis, there's always some place to go or something new to check out.
See Aqua80s: I'm an 80s/90s kid, i've heard this show is fantastic.
Avoid Cats (maybe): Not sure if this will be possible, our kids loved all the mainstage shows on Anthem. Who knows, maybe i'll like it...
Embrace the uniqueness of Oasis: Splashaway Bay, water slides, Ultimate Abyss, super-tall rock wall (20% taller than Anthem), Central Park & the Boardwalk, etc

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

It’s BRISK today! Driving up from the mid-Atlantic, we went from the upper 30s to the mid-50s at embarkation. We had a 10:30am check-in time, but didn’t arrive to the terminal until 10:50am. When you come off the NJ Turnpike in Bayonne and march towards the cruise terminal, you come down Chosen Few Way and have to make a left turn onto Goldsborough Dr (which turns into Port Terminal Blvd). Well, that left turn sucks. It’s a left turn against two-way traffic with no stop light. So you have hundreds of cars backed up trying to dodge traffic to make this left turn. There should truly be a stop light here, or find some other way to get onto Goldsborough.
So we get to the Terminal at 10:50am, and wait in the baggage check line for about 10 minutes. We’re parked by 11:10am, and head into the Terminal. Security is a breeze, and we go to a check-in line, finish check-in, and right onto the ship by 11:30am.
Once on-board, we went to Spotlight Karaoke for muster. We asked if they had wristbands for the kids, and they said they’d be in the stateroom (spoiler: they weren’t). After muster check-in, we made a bee-line for the Boardwalk and to Playmakers for lunch. The kiddos went straight for the carousel, and rode it a few times while food arrived. We got a bunch of nachos, fries, chicken tenders, and onion rings. Everything went over pretty well. I snuck over to Johnny Rockets and got an order of bacon cheese fries for our travel partners, and Johnny Rockets happily obliged and put it in a to-go box. While we ate, I tried to make dining reservations, but it wanted to charge us (we had UDP), I was getting boxed out of a lot of the reservation times I wanted, and it was slooooow. I gave up after 10 minutes and no reservations, determined to fix it at a host stand.
Once we wrapped up at the Boardwalk, we headed to Central Park to make UDP reservations. I headed into 150 Central Park, and worked with the host to make the reservations. It took a while (20 minutes?) but I was able to lock in all of the restaurants we wanted, at the times we wanted, and kept our two parties together.
Because the reservations were taking a while, I sent everyone else up to Adventure Ocean to register all the kiddos. I headed up there after everything was booked, and the other parents took care of registration and booking. The wife said the AO Babies staff said there were a “lot of babies” on this cruise, and limited us to 7 hours of time in the Nursery until Day 3, when they can shake out how heavily the Nursery is going to be used. We experienced something similar on Anthem last December, so we expected something similar. The older kids are first-come, first-serve, with no limits. Game-on.
After Adventure Ocean, we headed down and found our staterooms were ready. We had interior rooms on Anthem, and walking into a Balcony room and being flooded with natural light will make you never want to to go back to an interior room again. My goodness! There’s definitely a spillover of sound from the pool deck, we heard the live music and sail-away party even through the closed door, but also understand it’s loud because it’s Day 1 and getting everybody wound up. It’s not so loud as to disturb a nap.
Bags weren’t at our room yet, we took another walk around the ship to explore the pool deck. We went up to Deck 15 and walked past the Beach Pool. We saw people swimming, and I dipped my hand in the water and it was WARM! It felt really good! Unfortunately it was still mid-50s and WINDY on the pool deck, so we weren’t swimming just yet. We showed the kids around Splashaway Bay, and got our first soft-serve cone of the trip. We walked back to the Flowriders and Ultimate Abyss, then back down to the rooms where our bags started appearing.
We did pass through the Windjammer, and it was swamped, as expected. I was also surprised to see half of it closed - what gives, on such a busy morning?
We got unpacked, met our stateroom attendant, and gave all the praise to whoever invented magnet hooks. Really, guys, if you don’t have two dozen magnet hooks when you cruise, you’re doing it wrong 😄 We got everything unpacked, and started getting ready for dinner. I realized I hadn’t made entertainment reservations yet, and when I tried to do it in the app again, all the early show times were conflicting with our dining times.
I called the Box Office, and tried to book Frozen in Time for 7pm on Day 2. Nope, fully booked. Ended up booking Day 6 at 8pm. Then I tried to book Aqua80 for 8:15pm on Day 3. Nope, fully booked. Actually, ALL of the 8:15pm shows were fully booked, which is really disappointing. Pro tip: Make your entertainment reservations BEFORE your dining reservations!
We head down to Chops, and our party of five is seated at a 6-top, which a bench for 3 and 3 chairs. Our party of four is seated at a 4-top, but all the kids want to sit with each other 😆. We end up squeezing all 9 of us into the 6-top, at the recommendation of the server. The 5 kids fit on the bench, and the 4 adults round the table with chairs.
Service seems…slow. Coming off of MDR on Anthem in December, the MDR staff had timing nailed for our 5-top. Here at Chops, the pacing was drawn out much longer. Not sure if it’s Night 1 turbulence, or just how Chops runs, but from the time we sat down to the time we got apps was 45 minutes, soups/salads at 65, and mains at 80 minutes. We got the shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare for apps, wedge salad and mushroom soup for second course. All were really, really good. I got a bone-in ribeye for the entree. It was cooked perfectly, but was a little tough - could have used more marbling. The staff coursed the kids mains between apps and soup/salad, which was a blessing because they were about to eat the tablecloths 😆. Unfortunately by the time we got our mains, the kids were fried. We ended up getting dessert to go, and took it back to the room.
After we got the kids to bed, I did my mandatory wander-throughout-the-ship. Started on the Boardwalk to catch the Ravens game, then up to the pool deck to grab some night photos. I’m surprised how quiet the pool deck gets even at 8:30pm: everything closed, except a few hot tubs (but were empty). Same with the Solarium. I decided to go all the way down to the casino and test my luck, coming out a little on top to start off the cruise on the right foot. I wandered over to Jazz on 4 where I wrote the rest of this live blog listening to a great quartet.
Initial observations: Oasis is a great ship - they really nailed the layout, distribution of activities, style, etc. I can’t speak for pre/post amplification, this being my first time here. Everything is immaculate, of course. I do feel more drawn to the elegant style of Anthem, but am excited to do more of the activities package on Oasis (water slides, dual flowriders, escape room, ultimate abyss, etc).
Thanks everyone, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Photos below (in reverse chronological order, not sure why)
 

Right- we can no longer get OBC if the price drops after final payment (based on the date, not when you actually pay it). 

@MattG 6 inches approximately.

Day 2 - Sea Day!
We had given Jay our coffee order and (silly us) asked for a delivery at 7am.  🤪 What???  7am is far too early for a wake up on vacation!  Tomorrow, it will be 7:30am instead.  
Our coffee arrived as ordered, but there weren't any identifying markings on them so we were all tasting each others' coffees to figure out who they belonged to.  Breakfast arrived at 8am as ordered except for one extra plate of 2 eggs and hash browns.  One thing we had learned last year is that they take orders very literally.  If you order 2 eggs, they think it's 2 orders of eggs.  Not too bad for our first room service order.  
Jay stopped by after breakfast to go over our day and we chatted for a long while getting to know him.  He's genuinely a really nice guy!  By the way - if any of you are looking for info on gifts for Jay, he loves coffee!  His drink of choice on the ship is a venti caramel latte with almond milk.  🥰
We hung out in the room most of the morning and got to see the rehearsal for the aqua show.  We're amazed at the talent the performers possess!!  We finally ventured out a little after 11am so our cabin attendant could come in and put our room back together.  We wandered down to Starbucks (to get Jay his favorite drink), and ended up at the wrong end of the Promenade because they had just started the parade.  We went down to 4 to cut over to the other end but ended up at the entrance to the casino.  When I walked off the elevator, it was like walking into a wall of smoke.  I turned around and went back into the elevator and told the group I'd meet them down there.  I ended up going up to deck 7 and walked down the stateroom hallway to the other elevators.  The group never made it to Starbucks so I stopped and got his drink then met them at Izumi where I found them all melting from the temperature.  
It's so hot on this ship!  I kept thinking it was just me, but I'm beginning to hear it from others also - so I'm not actually having one long hot flash!  🥵 Thank God!!  I've been running so hot that I've been reluctant to put makeup on because it would just melt off of my face.
Jay had arranged lunch for us at Izumi sushi and while waiting for it to open at Noon, Mom was feeling a bit woozy again.  After the incident on the plane, we immediately contacted Jay and he brought up a wheelchair for her.  It turned out to be motion sickness, so Tim, Mom, and Cindy went back to the cabin to get her Dramamine and eat lunch there while she rested and recovered.  
After mom was feeling a bit better, Cindy joined Kenzie, Kayla, and I at the restaurant and she got caught up with the rest of us on the appetizers.  We learned on Anthem that we loved the chicken karaage and the edamame!  Of course we ordered those and gyoza dumplings, and we got a couple of the signature rolls to share at the table.  We sent some food to the room also so Mom and Tim didn't miss out.  Unfortunately, the room delivery wasn't delivered for a very long time (we ordered it at 12:30, and it showed up at 2:40pm.  When we left at 1:45pm they said it was on the way.  It must have made a few laps around the ship because by the time it arrived, it was inedible. 
Thankfully, Jay had ordered a feast of snacks for everyone so they munched on 6 orders of chicken wings,2 whole pizzas, 2 orders of quesadillas, 2 orders of tacos, 1 charcuterie plate, 1 order of nachos, 1 veggie tray, 1 order of chocolate strawberries, and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.  Um...there are only 6 of us!  😳 So. Much. Food.  We requested that tomorrow's snacks be a plate of berries and some cookies - only!
Mom and Tim sat out on our next adventure while mom relaxed a bit.  The other four of us met other star classers up on deck 12 and we got to do the Star Class bridge tour!!!  Jay said that was only the second tour they had done for the star classers since the comeback, so they were making sure everyone was extra well behaved - they don't want to give them any reason to not continue that perk.  The bridge is amazing!!  I could easily live up there!!  Just sayin.
We went back to the room and kicked our feet up for a bit, then Cindy, Kenzie, and Kayla decided to go hide all the ducks they brought on the trip.  They had a blast, and have even seen a few with people since hiding them. 🦆
Tonight was "formal night" and we all decided not to take our formal too far, but instead only do a semi-formal / dressy night and just color coordinate.  Our color tonight was blue.  🙂  It was also Kenzie's birthday celebration.  Dinner was at Samba Grille and the amount of food they provide you there is crazy!  We all tried to pace ourselves through dinner, but each time the gauche came by with more new meat for us to try, Mom looked at us with a look of shock and dismay!  She was a trooper and ate at least a bite of everything just to try it.  Some of the side dishes that are served Mom tried and didn't like, but was going to eat it anyway since she took it.  We told her it's okay not to eat something she didn't like.  Such a hard concept for someone to grasp when they've spent their entire life not wasting food.  I'm sure we'll have to continue to remind her. 
After dinner when we were all bloated, and I'm sure with food in our teeth from all the meat, it seemed like the right time to go have some pictures taken.  I really don't know what I was thinking.  We definitely need a better plan in the future.  We made it through two photographers, and then were all melting from the temperature of the ship and the heat coming off the lamps.  We called it good for the night and headed to our next thing.
The headliner show tonight was on par with most headliner shows.  It was good enough to keep us entertained, but it wasn't amazing.  Jay reserved us great seats, and we'll have the same tomorrow night for Mamma Mia!  We can't wait for that one!!  The seats we have are six seats that are semi-private - which is really nice.  We're in the front row of the mezzanine, which we totally prefer.  I have to say that I love that Jay asked what our preference was.  🥰
Kenzie and Kayla didn't join us for the show tonight, so there were two seats not used in our little private area.  In the middle of the show, some woman climbed over the back of the end seat and barreled her way in front of us, not even apologizing for trampling our feet.  I was left somewhat in shock over it but figured I'd save my complaining until after the show when we could all pile on together over the annoyance.  🤣
Apparently, it's a thing because at the end of the show, three more women climbed over the back of the end seat and forced their way by us, annoyed that we weren't pushing our way into the crowd.  The front woman was extremely rude to Cindy telling her that she needed to get out.  Don't people excuse themselves anymore?  Where did manners go?   😟
We came back to our room and it was like a sauna in here!  I let Jay know and he was coming over anyway to drop off some things.  He called maintenance along the way and when he got here, he started sweating!   😅  He called maintenance again and they asked him to check the doors to make sure they were closed.  According to Jay (who has been on ships for years), they were closed.  However, when maintenance arrived, he checked the sliding door in our room and the living room and he determined that it was the doors keeping our AC from not working.  If Jay thought they were closed, how are people who don't live on a cruise ship supposed to tell if the door is closed or not??   
While in the room, we had the maintenance guy pull a staple out of the carpet that Kenzie and Tim had caught their feet on.  It was sticking up and was hard to find after it happened.  Crazy!  I'll share some thoughts on the ship and the cabin a bit later in my blog, but I can tell you that Allure is starting to show her age and could really use a facelift.  
Here are my pics from today.  Sorry, I didn't get the food pics from Kenzie before she fell asleep.  Also sorry that one of the pics of the compass is sideways.  

 

Hi everyone, 
 
We're cruising in a few weeks, and the check-in (mobile and online) isn't asking for a photo of the vaccination card. Is this the new normal (back to the old normal)? Is anyone else being prompted to scan/photo their vax cards? 

The menu does change with the region (Americas, Mediterranean, Europe, Asia), but stays the same for sailings within that region. 
 
I'm almost positive that Alaska sailings and Caribbean sailings will share the same MDR menu.